Monday 13 August 2012 15.18 EDT
First published on Monday 13 August 2012 15.18 EDT

Lord Coe, organising committee chairman of London 2012, has urged politicians to invest heavily in elite sport, insisting that achievements by Team GB's medal winners will drive grassroots participation.

Ever since London won the bid to host the 2012 Games on the back of a string of promises about the event's legacy, a fierce debate has raged over whether medal-winning performances in iconic stadiums could inspire the population at large to exercise more.

Coe has always been adamant that they would, despite little evidence from previous Games to support the theory. Today he backed the government's decision to guarantee £125m-a-year funding for elite sport until Rio 2016 on the basis that it would inspire growth in participation.

"You can never spend too much on elite sport. It will always be the greatest driver of sporting participation and we should be unashamed about that. Those British moments, those international moments that we've seen in those venues will do more than anything else to inspire people to take up sport," he said.

"Of course, you have to have the right structures in place to deal with that demand. Be under no illusion, you do not get excellence on the cheap. There is a dividend you reap across the whole of sport if you have the right people doing the right things at the right time in the best-stocked shop window you can possibly have, which is the Olympic Games."

Coe said that "everything starts from emulation and aspiration". He added: "Those Team GB athletes will be the greatest driver of participation we've had in this country in the last 20 years."

As part of the agreement to guarantee £125m in annual lottery and exchequer funding for the elite funding body, UK Sport, athletes will be required to make themselves available for five days a year to visit schools.

The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said: "We've got to be very realistic about the fact that while it's unbelievably important to get young people playing more sport, it's not something governments can solve on their own. It's about parents wanting people to get off the sofa and be active, it's about the culture and values inside schools.

"There aren't many Games that have succeeded in getting a real boost for sports participation after a successful Olympics. If we are successful, and we're determined to be, it will be a real first for London."

But Hunt bridled as he was asked whether there was enough joined-up thinking between the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and colleagues in the Health and Education departments on how best to realise the Games' legacy.

"I am absolutely astonished that you even dare to ask that question after the most stunningly successful example of joined-up government that any of us have ever seen, with 19 government departments working incredibly well to put on a wonderful Games."

As they basked in the glow of a successful Games, politicians and organisers lined up to thank those that had made it possible, lavishing particular praise on the 70,000 volunteers.

London's mayor, Boris Johnson, said: "Their enthusiasm was infectious and they played a big part in the success of the Games." He said the Games had defied the "naysayers and gloomadon-poppers".

Despite early impressions that the dire warnings about transport and overcrowding had resulted in areas of London being left virtually empty, Johnson said that there had been an immediate boost to consumer spending.

He said hotels were 84% full, that restaurant spending was up by 20% and nightclub income up by 24%.

"If you were to say to me we've just held the greatest Games ever held on this earth I would not necessarily dissent," said Johnson.